Carbonator for beverages and the like.



H. M.'SMITH.

CARBONATOR FOR BEVERAGES AND THE LIKE..

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 20.1915.

Patented Mar. 5, 1918.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

H. M. SMITH. CARBONATOR FOR sevmess AND THE LIKE.

m M W 2 am! m 9 w 27 a w Z 1 .MQNNN UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HORACE E. SMITH, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR 'I'O LIQUID CABBONICCOMPANY,

OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION 01 ILLINOIS.

OAR'BONA'I'OB FOB BEVERAGES AND THE LIKE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 5, 1918.

Application fled September 20, 1915. Serial No, 51,598.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Home]: M. SMITH, a citizen of the United States,residin at Chicago, county of Cook, and State of inois, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Carbonators for I Beverages andthe like, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates more particularly to that class of carbonatorswhich comprise a reservoir, the contents of which are intermittently andirregularly tapped or withdrawn for consumption or use, such for exampleas are used in connection with bottling machines and soda fountains. Insuch constructions a saturating chamber ordinarily surmounts thereservoir and is arranged to be connected by suitable ipeswith pressuretubes containing car nic acid gas under high pressure and with a sourceof water so ply. In order to force the water into e saturat' chamberagainst the pressure of the gas erein it is necessary to employ a pumpwhich is usually driven from some suitable source of power andcontrolled as to its periods of operation by the level of the liquid inthe reservoir being set in operation whenever the liquid falls below apredetermined level. The preferred form of saturating chamber isvertically elongated and, as ordinary water contains considerable airwhich is more or less released or substituted by the carbonic acid gastaken up by the water in the saturating chamber, the air tends tocollect in the upper end of said chamber, thereby reducing theefiiciency of the latter. It is ordinary practice to rovide a valve forsniftin orexhausting eairintheuper end 0 the saturating chamber whic isopened whenever it occurs to the attendant that the device needssnifting. As the carbonator is ordinarily in a cellar or some other outof the way place, the snifting operation is ve impairing the e ciency ofthe operation of the carbonator. It is the object of my in-, vention toprovide for automatically sniftmg the saturating chamber at suitableintervals and to a demred extent. For this purpose I provide asnifting'valve and a motor for operat' the same which is controlledindirectly y the same 111 which controls the operation oLthe pum'p sothat every time the pump is operated to voir or its operation apt to beneglected, thus increasethe charge of water in the reserceases thesaturating chamber is automatically snifted.

In the accompanying drawings and in the following specification I haveshown and. describe my invention as ap lied to a preferred form ofapparatus. Li; is to be understood, however, that the specificdisclosure-is for the purpose of exemplifiestion only and that the scopeof the invention is set out in the following claims in which I haveendeavored to distinguish the invention from the prior art so far asknown to me without, however, relinquishing or abandoning any portionvor feature thereof.

In the accompanyin drawings Fi re 1 is a side elevation of a well knowhfi m of carbonator with my invention applied thereto; Fig. 2 is avertical section on an enlarged scale of certain of the more importantfeatures of the construction; Fig. 3 is a transverse section on the line3-3 of Fig. 2; and Fig. 4 an elevation section on line 4-4 of Fig. 1.

The same reference character is applied to each part wherever it occursthroughout the several views. V

Referrin first to Fig. 1, the ordinary form of car onater showncomprises a reservoir 5; upon which is mounted a vertical saturatingchamber 6 which communicates therewith in the usual manner. A pump 7 isconnected by a pipe 8 with the top of the saturating chamber forsupplying water thereto and said pump is driven in the usual manner andby mechanism which need not therefore be here described, from a powershaft 9 carrying a pulley 10. The belt shifter 11 normally holds thebelt upon the idle pulley 12 being provided with a spring 13' for thispurpose. But the rod 14 of the belt shifter is connected to a pistonwithin a cylinder 15 which at times when the level of the water in thereservoir falls below the desired point forces the belt shifter to theright in said figure a inst the pressure of the spring to carry t e beltonto the driving pulley. The piston in cylinder 15 is commonly operatedby gas pressure led by a pipe 16. from the pressure regulator 17 to avalve cylinder 18 which is mounted on the end of the cylinder 15. Gas issupplied from any suitable source but preferably from the general supplyof compressed car- 110 partly in bonic acid by the pipe 17', The valve18 is o erated when the liquid in the reservoir 5 fa ls below apredetermined point and for this purpose a tank 20 connected above andbelow the normal water level with the reservoir 5 is suspended from alever 21 and counterbalanced by a weight 22. A connecting rod 23connects said lever with a bell crank 24 by which the valve 18 isoperated, see Fig. 4. Obviously when the water in the reservoir fallsbelow a predetermined point the level in the suspended tank-fallslikewise so that the counterbalance weight overpowers the tank andshifting the lever 21 likewise shifts the lever 24 through theconnection 23 and operates the valve 18 for.

admission of gas under pressure to the cylinder 15. The shifterthereupon shifts the belt to the driving pulley and the pump isoperated. until such a level is reached that the equilibrium of thelever 21 carrying the tank 15 reestablished;

The above is a brief description of one of the most common forms ofcarbonating apparatus in use in connection with soda water fountains. Myinvention relates, as before observed, to an attachment for carbonatorsof this eral description for drawing ofi or ing the air from the u perend of the saturating chamber at suitale intervals and automatically.For this purpose the shifting valve 25 1s connected by a pipe 26 to thetop of the saturating chamber 6 (see Fig. 1). A motor cylinder 27 foroperating said valve is connected by a pipe 28 with the inlet chamber 29of the motor cylinder 15 by which the belt shifter is operated so thatwhen the gas under pressure enters the motor cylinder 15 it also entersthe valve operating motor 27. The construction of the latter and also ofthe snift-' ing valve is shown more particularly in Figs. 2, 3 and 4.The snifting valve comprises a casing 30 which may be convenientlymounted upon an attaching plate 31 and is formed in two sectionsconnected by a screw thread 32.

The upper section 33 extends within the lower section and is formed atits lower end with a Wall 34 provided with a valve seat 35 extendinginto the lower section 36. The joint between the two sections is packedat 37 and the lower section is connected by a nipple 38 and socket tothepipe- 26 referred to above. A reciprocating valve 39 normally engagesthe valve seat being held in contact therewith by a spring 40 inclosedby a sleeve 41 connected to the valve stem 42 and bearing against the upr surface of the wall 34. The sleeve 41 s 1 es within the upper sectionof the casing, and valve-stem 42 is enlarged to havea sliding fit withinthe valve seat 35 where'it is provided with channels 42 for the passageof gas.

The motor for operating the valve comend of a link 49 pivoted at 50 tothe valve stem. A stop 51 limits the movement'of the piston to theright,. as seen in Fig. 2. The connection between the piston rod andvalve stem is such as to permit lost motion so that the piston rodisfree to finish its stroke in either direction but as the stud 47passes over the valve it depresses the same through the link 49 so thatthe valve is opened for a very short fraction of'a second, permittingthe escape of air and as the stud 47 passes on the valve is return toits seat. Thus it is opened by the movement of the piston in eachdirection. The pipe 28 heretofore mentioned is shown in Fig. 2 ascommunicating with the interior' of the cylinder 43 at 52 and betweenthe other end of the cylinder and the adjacent face of the pistonaspring 53 is compressed which normally maintains the piston to theleft. Thus the piston is given a complete reciprocation every time thepump is operated to supply water to the saturator. I

By suitably proportioning the parts the automatic smftmg operation canbe made to take care of the air carried into the saturating chamber,though if desired a hand snifting valve 54-may be added for use as re- Iclaim:

1. In a device of the class described, a saturating chamber, a sniftingvalve connected therewith, a pump for supplying water to the device,means for throwing the pump into and out of operation and mechanismcontrolled by said means for operating the snifting valve.

2. In a device of the class described, a saturating chamber, a sniftingvalve connected therewith, a pump for.supplying the device with water,means for throwing the pum into and out of operation comprising a fluidmotor, means for operating the snifting valve comprising a fluid motor,and common means for admitting operating fluid to said motors.

3. In a device of the class described, a saturating chamber, a sniftingvalve connected therewith, a pump for supplying the permitted to againdevice with water, means for throwing the the saturating chamber, a pumpfor supply-' ing liquid to the carbonator, means for throwing the pumpinto and out of operation comprising a fluid motor, means for operatingthe snifting valve comprising a fluid motor, the last said motor havinga cylinder and piston, a link connection between the piston and sniftingvalve, a valve controlling the admission of fluid into said motors, andmeans controlled by the level of the liquid in the reservoir foroperating the last said valve.

5. In a carhonator, a reservoir and a saturating chamber, a pump andconnections for supplying water to the saturating chamber, a.reciprocating snifting valve connected to the upper end of thesaturating chamber, a fluid motor comprising a iston and rod, and lostmotion connection etween the rod and valve whereby the latter isoperated at each movement of the piston, means for throwing the pumpinto and out of operation comprising a fluid motor and a valvecontrolled by the level of the Water in the reservoir for admitting airinto said motors.

6. In a earbonator a reservoir, a saturating chamber therein, a pump forsupplying water to the carhonator, means for operating the pump, adevice for starting and stopping the operation of the pump comprising afluid operated motor, a snifting valve connected with the upper end ofthe saturating chamber, a fluid motor for operating the shifting valvearranged substantially perpendicular thereto, a loose link connectionbetween the valve and its. motor, a connection between said motors, avalve controlling the admission of fluid to said motors, and meanscontrolled by the level of the liquid in the reservoir for operating thelast said valve.

HORACE M. SMITH;

